The income tax (IT) officials on Monday launched a special drive against hospitals and nursing homes in the city which have been evading payment of tax. The IT officials carried out searches at a multi-speciality hospital in the city,a nursing home and a medical laboratory after it came to their notice that they have been evading taxes worth crores of rupees.

The searches that began early in the morning continued till late evening. Officials said that they have recovered incriminating documents related to the evasion of taxes. Searches were carried out at Dhawan Hospital in Sector 7,a nursing home run by Dr Poonam Gupta and Bakshi laboratory,both in Sector 10. The searches were led by Additional Commissioner of income tax,Shalini B Kaushal,and comprised a team of 30 officials,including inspectors and income tax officers (ITOs).

The assessment of the tax evasion was being worked out even as officials said it could run into crores. Sources said that searches were carried out as the receipts that were shown by these medical facilities did not match with the income that they had generated from the facilities they were running. The local police also helped the IT officials in carrying out the searches. At Dhawan Hospital in Sector 7,which is a multi-speciality hospital specialising in medical care of urinary ailments and cancer surgeries,officials said that it was found that the records of the hospital did not match with what had been furnished as income,to the IT department.

Sources said during the searches it was found that the management which was running these medical facilities had invested in property and hadnt disclosed this to the IT department. The IT officials also seized the duplicate sets of books of accounts of these medical facilities. They said in the returns filed with the department,the management of these medical facilities had not disclosed the source of the money of the properties that they had invested in.